Hamas will rise from the ashes, says its exiled leader

DOHA - Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Meshaal said the Palestinian group would rise “like a phoenix” from the ashes despite heavy losses during a year of war with Israel, and that it continues to recruit fighters and manufacture weapons.

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A year after the Hamas attack that triggered the war, he framed the conflict with Israel as part of a broader narrative spanning 76 years, dating back to what Palestinians call the “Nakba” or “catastrophe”, when many were displaced during the 1948 war that accompanied the creation of Israel.

“Palestinian history is made of cycles,” Meshaal, 68, a senior Hamas figure under overall leader Yahya Sinwar, said in an interview. “We go through phases where we lose martyrs (victims) and we lose part of our military capabilities, but then the Palestinian spirit rises again like the phoenix, thanks to God.”

Meshaal, who survived an Israeli assassination attempt in 1997 after he was injected with poison and was overall Hamas leader from 1996 to 2017, said the Islamist militant group was still able to mount ambushes against Israeli troops.